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Most of us think we communicate well enough. After all, we talk to colleagues, customers, friends, prospects and so many others on a regular basis. Heck, thanks to social media, we talk to people we’ve never met! But, that doesn’t make us good communicators, and more importantly, it doesn’t mean people get what we’re saying or that we will get what we want.

Communicating in good times is tough enough, but connecting in not so good times is an even greater challenge. If you’re concerned about how the economy is affecting your business, then it’s important to think about how your communication style affects people who are as worried as you are.

This is a preview of Recession Proof Communicating: How to Be More Convincing to Seal the Deal. Read the full post

The emergence of social media in public relations strikes me as being like a lot of crises. First, it has the capacity to change our world profoundly — for good or ill. Second, it looked like it snuck up on us, bursting onto the scene with an urgency and impact that could be considered explosive. But the truth is, like most crises, it was there smoldering for a long time before it erupted into the single most compelling issue in public relations today. Third, while we’re in the thick of this “social media crisis,” it looks like it will never end. But like all crises, it too shall pass. The only question is, what will the future look like when it is superceded with some new form of normalcy?

At the recent Ragan Communications/PRSA Conference on Social Media in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to speak on social media and crisis communication. It was one of the most engaging discussions I’ve ever had with a large group. Essentially what we discussed was the fact that social media is changing our world forever, and that social media changes nothing of importance.

Social media, as exemplified by three of the hot topics of the day — Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — is accelerating and emphasizing trends that have been in play ever since the Internet became part of our lives. These trends are the ever-increasing speed of news, the ability and expectation of audiences to get information directly from sources rather than from the media, the exponential phenomenon of word of mouth and the high levels of interactivity. These changes are profound for those involved in daily public affairs, issues management and crisis management. In this sense, it changes everything. Our work is faster, more direct, more interactive — let alone how styles and modes have changed.

When the Federal Trade Commission needed to explain why the agency had decided not to develop a do-not-spam registry (Officials feared that spammers would target people on the list.), a spokesperson said:

“You’ll be spammed if we do and spammed if we don’t.”

You’ve got to love that sound bite! How can you craft such a memorable, quotable line for your copy? One approach is to list, rhyme and twist. Here’s how:

1) List.Write down the key or topic words from your article,then expand your list, the more words, the better. Try synonyms, antonyms and different forms of your key word — “spam,” “spams,” “spammed” and “spamming,” for instance. Note: Visual Thesaurus and OneLook Reverse Dictionary are great tools for expanding your list.

2) Rhyme.Use rhyming dictionaries to find words that rhyme with your key words. My favorite is RhymeZone. Keep looking. RhymeZone doesn’t recognize “spammed.” But it did send me to OneLook Dictionary Searchfor words ending in “ammed.” (Input “*ammed.”) I searched for one of them — “slammed” — back at RhymeZone, which gave me this list: crammed, dammed, damned, jammed, rammed, scammed.

To calculate a return on investment, you need to connect the communication you did with a change in audience behavior, because virtually all behaviors have a financial impact for an organization. If employees or customers or reporters do something differently, it will result in either an increase in revenues or a decrease in costs. This means you will not be able to calculate ROI based on an increase in awareness or knowledge or an improved opinion. Until knowledge and attitudes result in a behavior change, you have nothing to attach a monetary value to.

Once you quantify the behavior change, usually with the help of others in your marketing, HR or operations departments who monitor those behaviors as part of their jobs, you need to identify how much credit you can take for the resulting behavior change. It’s easiest to do this for situations where no one else was trying to influence a particular behavior so you can take 100 percent of the credit. For example, one friend of mine used communication to get employees to use a special access code before dialing long distance. The telecommunication manager gave her communication full credit for the resulting increase in the percentage of calls made using the access code, which resulted in a $20,000 a month cost savings.

For the really resistant, brittle individual who is impervious to almost any suggestion that he or she could use some coaching, I’ve developed a brief self-coaching list. These 12 items often lead to good conversations, but this is something you send to the executive, ask for 10 minutes to review it, be turned down, but wait for the phone to ring.

Lukaszewski’s Twelve Quick Performance Tips for Spokespersons:

Use positive declarative language. Avoid using negative words and phrases. They cause confusion, generate negative follow-up questions and make you feel defensive.

Talk about the future rather than the past. Everyone remembers the past differently. Going there often causes confusion and disagreements.

If you must talk about the past, speak only about the lessons you learned there that will help you build a better tomorrow. Generally, the past holds very few, if any, useful lessons for tomorrow.

Be constructive. Make suggestions or give helpful advice rather than criticize. Criticism creates critics and victims and is remembered forever.

This is a preview of No Time for Coaching — How Can I Still Help My Busy Boss Get Ready for the Media? (Part II). Read the full post

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